jslove ([identity profile] jslove.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] avevale_intelligencer 2005-01-04 08:31 pm (UTC)

It's been done. Sort of.

There are (at least) two animated movies that are musicals. Well, not exactly musicals; the singing is done by the bard/narrator telling the story rather than by the characters themselves, but there are songs.

The Hobbit and The Return of the King, produced by Arthur Rankin, Jr., and Jules Bass. Jules Bass also "wrote and adapted" the lyrics. Music by Maury Laws, screenplay by Romeo Muller. Released on DVD by Warner Brothers. I've got them here.

I suppose that they didn't bother with The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers because of the animated/rotoscoped Ralph Bakshi version of the first half of the trilogy, leaving a gap, but perhaps they were produced and I just haven't seen them, or they weren't released on DVD.

Producing a real musical, operetta or opera with live actors singing their character development and maybe plot would be another thing. Either it would be a series (a new Ring cycle) or there would be brutal compromises.

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